Enhancing Volleyball Athlete Performance: A Comprehensive Review of Training Interventions and Their Impact on Agility, Explosive Power, and Strength

Volleyball is one of the most globally renowned sports in terms of global popularity. The game is a team sport that both men and women can participate in. The gameplay relies heavily on physical activities such as jumping, landing, and quick movements, often causing strain on the musculoskeletal system and leading to injuries. For this reason, agility training is crucial to improving a player's ability to change direction swiftly as and when required by the gameplay. Although it is relatively safer than other team sports, actions like jumping, blocking, and spiking can lead to potential injuries. Properly monitoring the training loads and injury prevention during training should be the major focus in formulating a holistic training methodology in volleyball training. The main goal of this literature study is to evaluate the impact of various training interventions on agility and other performance parameters specific to volleyball players. The range of research approaches and interventions described in this literature review highlights the significance of agility in volleyball training. In many studies, the use of tailored training programs for volleyball has been shown to have positive effects on agility, strength, and jump performance. Although there are limitations to the study design and sample size, the findings from this review necessitate the need for better scientifically informed training programs to reduce injury risk while enhancing player's overall performance potential. To conclude, the current literature review highlights the importance of agility training in volleyball, providing insights into effective training strategies and highlighting the low quality of evidence, suggesting the need for well-structured research on the topic.


Introduction And Background
Volleyball is one of the most globally popular sports, played by approximately 800 million people worldwide [1][2][3].Sports performance, particularly in sports games, combat sports, and volleyball, relies primarily on fundamental components such as complex reaction speed, acceleration, maximum speed, whole-body change of direction, and agility [4][5].Volleyball-specific activities, such as running, jumping, and landing on the ground, the ball blocks, and spikes, must be combined with agility and fast movements, putting a strain on the musculoskeletal system [6].As a result, volleyball players are vulnerable to musculoskeletal problems [7].Agility training is focused on improving an individual's ability to change their movement direction quickly [8,9].It involves lateral movements, forward and backward jumps, and crisscross exercises [10].
Agility training in volleyball focuses on improving a player's ability to quickly change direction and respond to directional cues, enhancing their on-court performance by optimizing coordination between the central nervous system and proprioceptive feedback [11,12].
Although volleyball is generally seen as a safe activity, the overall risk of factors predisposing to injury mostly refers to body height, age, league, court position, proper warmup, and previous injury as reported by earlier findings [13].Injuries in the sport of volleyball often result from actions such as jumping and landing, as well as from interactions with the ball during hitting and blocking [14].The ball's high speeds, which can reach up to 80 mph, pose a significant risk of injury if it contacts a player's unintended body area.Specific positions on the volleyball court are linked to particular injury risks, with hitting and blocking being more injury-prone compared to passing or setting [15,16].The majority of injuries, whether they are sudden and acute or develop over time due to overuse, occur during the physical act of jumping [17].Overuse injuries tend to be more prevalent than acute injuries and are typically attributed to factors like improper technique, the volume of repetitive movements, or the playing surface's characteristics [18].Elite athletes who dedicate more time to practice and training face a heightened risk of overuse injuries.This is likely due to their increased practice hours and intensity [19].
In the realm of current technological advancements, every sport undergoes rigorous scientific testing and training methodologies aimed at enhancing athletic prowess.Any metric employed becomes a valuable tool for assessing physical exercise and delving into the scientific aspects of sports performance [20,21].Many athletes, trainers, and support personnel are adopting a more scientific approach to planning and monitoring training programs [22].Monitoring training loads effectively is critical to measuring an athlete's adaptation to their training regimen and limiting potential risks associated with ineffective overloading, illness, or injury [23].Various indicators are available to get insight into the influence of training load on athletes [24].The training regimen in volleyball should be designed to align with the customary requirements of match intensity, the distinctive attributes of individual player specializations within the team's game strategy, and the unique characteristics of each athlete, and concurrently, it should be in line with the evolving trends of contemporary volleyball and the training methodologies [25][26][27].Nonetheless, only a few of these indications are supported by solid scientific evidence, and a single, unambiguous marker in the existing corpus of literature on volleyball has yet to emerge [24].
In conclusion, while volleyball is a globally popular sport, it is critical to recognize and treat the inherent dangers, particularly those connected to injuries.A systematic and scientifically informed training program is critical for athletes to reduce these hazards and improve their performance.To ensure the long-term success and well-being of volleyball fans, players, coaches, and support staff must take a methodical approach based on evolving insights into the sport's unique demands.

Review Literature search strategy
A precise search of works of literature in English-language literature from electronic databases was performed methodologically in accordance with a protocol for this review.All co-authors mutually agreed upon it.Four different databases, including PubMed, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Semantic Scholar, and Google Scholar, were searched from 2012 to 2023.A total of 186 literature searches for papers were carried out using an appropriate combination of the keywords agility, agility training, and volleyball players.
The reference lists of the included studies and pertinent review papers were screened as a secondary search.
Out of these, 10 articles were available for review, as shown in Figure 1.

Study selection
The initial search yielded 186 studies (including 34 identified through a reference list search).EndNote software (Clarivate Analytics, Philadelphia, United States) was used to import the list of main articles, and duplicates were removed.Based on study design, intervention, participant characteristics, and sample size, 10 articles were selected for review, and titles and abstracts of the relevant articles were analyzed manually.

Types of outcome
A diverse set of outcome measures was utilized across the studies, evaluating aspects of athletic performance like agility, strength, power, and jump performance.The interventions implemented in the studies exhibited a wide spectrum, encompassing traditional resistance training, plyometric exercises, innovative methods such as dance video games, and structured programs like the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA 11+).These varied outcome measures and interventions underscore the multifaceted character of athletic performance in the context of volleyball.The findings emphasize the importance of tailored training approaches to address the specific needs and aspects of performance within the sport.

Data synthesis and analysis
For manual screening of the studies, the following inclusion criteria used were full-text publication from an English-language peer-reviewed journal.

Limitations
The systematic evaluation of the included papers on volleyball training treatments indicates numerous limitations.Many studies have small sample sizes and short intervention duration, limiting the validity and long-term consequences of the findings.The lack of diverse study populations and control groups, along with variations in training programs, makes it difficult to compare the effectiveness of interventions directly.Potential publication bias and the use of diverse outcome measures further complicate the synthesis of results.Additionally, the absence of blinding in some studies may introduce bias.

FIGURE 1 :
FIGURE 1: PRISMA chart PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Participants were volleyball athletes.The experimental trial included pre-and post-testing, and at least one of the control groups received no intervention or an alternate exercise-based training program, an exercise training intervention that incorporated parts of training with a component relating to agility (balance or direction and velocity change), a six-week exercise training regimen with at least two weekly training sessions.The exclusion criteria were used for handscreening of research, including non-athletic patients and articles in languages other than English, duplicate articles and non-full-text papers, review papers, systematic reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, comments, conference summary abstracts, and case reports.

Table 1
shows details of the articles included.
2024 Keoliya et al.Cureus 16(1): e53273.DOI 10.7759/cureus.afocus on individualization.In this particular study, training loads were personalized based on the players' mass and height.The study also highlights the importance of considering the total work rate, which varied among the groups and affected program effectiveness.

TABLE 1 : Summary of the articles that are reviewed for agility training
[37]anović and Jovanović (2012)e, and 10-meter sprint times for shuttle-run and agility ladder training groups.This shows that these training strategies improve athletic performance in young female volleyball players[28].Similarly, Cakir and Ergiṅ (2022) demonstrated, through a randomized controlled trial on core training, a significant impact on countermovement jump, vertical jump, and pro-agility test performance, highlighting the value of core training in developing explosive power and agility in female volleyball players[29].CiṄ et al. (2021) found that cluster resistance training (CRT) outperformed conventional resistance training in terms of strength gains across many measures.This highlights the potential benefits of CRT for total strength development, which is an important component of volleyball performance[30].Hosseini (2019) used the FIFA 11+ training program in a quasi-experimental study with male volleyball players and found significant improvements in agility, horizontal jump, and vertical leap.This highlights the efficacy of systematic training programs, such as FIFA 11+, in enhancing certain athletic skills[31].Hale (2019) used a prospective experimental approach to show significant improvements in vertical jump metrics and agility performance in female youth volleyball athletes after an eight-week mixed strength and plyometric/agility conditioning program, demonstrating the efficacy of a holistic training program in improving leaping abilities and agility[32].Roopchand-Martin et al. (2018) investigated innovative training modalities, such as dance video game training, and found significant gains in agility.This study demonstrates that unusual and engaging strategies can improve volleyball players' agility[33].Ho et al. (2016)discovered that plyometric workouts improved agility, countermovement jump, and blocking agility, highlighting the usefulness of plyometric training in enhancing agility and vertical leap[34].Jastrzbeski et al. (2014)found substantial increases in vertical jump heights and power generation with both high-intensity and low-intensity plyometric training, indicating that both modalities could improve leaping ability[35].Gortsila (2013) assessed a 10-week volleyball training program on various surfaces and found substantial increases in the agility T-test and 505-test performance.This study demonstrates that training programs can improve agility, with the training surface influencing the results[36].Stojanović and Jovanović (2012)observed that plyometric training significantly improved leaping agility and explosive leg strength[37].Overall, the literature shows that a variety of training interventions, including plyometric exercises, core training, and novel approaches such as dance video games, can greatly improve volleyball players' agility, strength, and vertical jump abilities.These findings offer significant recommendations to coaches and athletes looking to improve their training routines and on-court performance.An ongoing study into the most effective training regimens adapted to certain volleyball player profiles is likely to develop and advance training procedures in the future.